UN top court says Srebrenica massacre genocide

THE HAGUE, Feb 26 (Reuters) The highest UN court said today the massacre of Bosnian Muslim men in Srebrenica in 1995 constituted genocide.

Bosnia has asked the International Court of Justice to rule on whether Serbia committed genocide during the 1992-95 war. It is the first time a state has been tried for genocide, outlawed in a UN convention in 1948 after the Nazi Holocaust.

Reading from a lengthy judgment statement before pronouncing the final ruling, ICJ president Judge Rosalyn Higgins said: ''The court concludes that the acts committed at Srebrenica fall in articles.. of the (genocide) convention.'' She added that in other mass killings of Bosnian Muslims, the court was not convinced the perpetrators had the specific intent to commit genocide.

Earlier in the ruling she said the court found it established that Serbia ''was making its considerable military and financial support available'' to the Bosnian Serbs.

REUTERS PB DS1635